From Discovering Intelligent Design: Animal Versus the Machine
Excerpted from Discovering Intelligent Design, by Gary Kemper, Hallie Kemper, and Casey Luskin; Chapter 10, "Life Is Complicated":
While the analogy is far from perfect, the four tissue types in animals bear some resemblance to components we recognize from human technology.
Consider, for instance, the car. In cars, nervous tissue has obvious counterparts: electrical wires transmit electricity from the battery or alternator to the spark plugs, and computer chips control many other functions.
Muscle tissue might be compared to the engine, belts, and drive shaft, all of which generate the car's movement.
While some of the many functions of epithelial tissue might not have analogies in cars, there are similarities. Paint and wax on the car's body fulfill a protective role by preventing rust. Fuel and air filters keep harmful elements out but allow necessary ones to pass through.
Finally there is connective tissue, which is analogous to a car's chassis and body. Like the parts of a car, the organs and tissues in an organism work together to perform a multitude of functions.
These comparisons are readily made between biological systems and machines because organisms contain machines. And in all of our experience, machines arise only by intelligence.
When the analogy between biological components and car parts breaks down, it's because biological systems are more complicated. For example, the human brain is unimaginably more complex than computer chips in cars. Similarly, our bodies have an immune system and can often heal themselves -- abilities many a car owner sitting in a mechanic's waiting room has wished that his or her vehicle had.
If inferior human technology requires design, why can't the design inference be made in the context of biology, which is dramatically more complex?
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